Strip Club Tax Supporters Drop Research Bomb

​Some resent the implication at the heart of the "skin tax" bill: That strip clubs somehow foster sexual assault, and thus should have to pay $5-per-patron fee to fund aid to rape victims.

However, as the bill wends its way through the Illinois senate, supporters of the bill are arguing -- now with fact sheets that cite specific studies! -- that it's not a question of causation; it's a question of correlation.

In other words, proponents claim, strip clubs may or may not cause rape, but one of their "negative secondary effects" on a neighborhood is an increase in crime, including sexual assault.At least the Texas Supreme Court justices recently concluded as much,
according to a research packet being circulated by the Illinois
Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Lt. Governor Sheila Simon, and the bill's author, Senator Toi Hutchinson, D-Chicago Heights.

In
2011, those justices ruled that a strip club tax in their state was
constitutional, citing a study showing that sex crimes were 20 times
more likely to be reported at such clubs compared to regular bars.

To
be fair, the sex crimes in question were "public lewdness, solicitation
and prostitution," none of which qualify as sexual assault. But are we
splitting hairs?

No research is even are even linked/provided. Self serving snippets that we don't know the context of quoted, but that's the extent.

Second, "In other words, strip clubs may or may not cause rape, but one of their "negative secondary effects" on a neighborhood is an increase in crime, including sexual assault."

That's not how correlation works, you were right when you said it didn't cause it, the quote that a "negative secondary effect" is.... X is dead wrong. The crime found may be a result of any number of things that happen to also be correlated with strip clubs for whatever reason. I can help you out, if you want speculation:

a) Povertyb) Corrupt Governmentc) Piss Poor Law Enforcement

These things are not hard to see in our local strip club areas. These tend to be the types of areas strip clubs end up in, and that crime would be there with/without the strip club. The very definition of correlated, not caused by.